We Promise Never to Wage a Second War!

Enya was someone he had bought from the slave market. She was both his personal maid and his deathsworn bodyguard.

In the Original Work, after Ansu was sacrificed by Esoteric Cultists, Enya found the cultists' hideout, slaughtered them all, chopped them into pieces, and then chose to take her own life.

Ansu had never been discriminated against by his family, nor had the servants ever looked down on him.

He had not suffered any tragic experiences growing up, much less had a miserable, sorrowful childhood.

Nor did he live in the abandoned Gray Tower.

He had never been confined, either.

It had all been an act for the Little Saintess to see.

Just like contestants on talent shows performing how utterly miserable their lives had been.

He was merely an ordinary second-generation rich kid.

But second-generation rich kids had their own troubles too.

After his mother died in childbirth, his father, Count Carlo, proved to be a devoted man and had no intention of remarrying. Thus, Ansu, her posthumous child, became the Morningstar Family's sole heir.

And Count Carlo's reason for not allowing him to study magic was very simple:

If you spend all day studying, who's going to inherit my massive estate?

Your dark talent was born to manage the treasury!

The Morningstar Family was a newly risen house. Count Carlo had once been an ordinary soldier. After distinguishing himself in battle, he received military merit, secured a fief, and then discovered the largest gold mine on the borderlands within that fief. Just like that, he transformed into a newly rich tycoon.

He bought more and more land, and his title rose higher and higher with every purchase.

But his bearing had yet to catch up with his title, so his way of educating children was exceptionally straightforward.

If reality allowed it, Ansu also wanted to be an unpretentious second-generation rich kid, but the plot forced him to work hard.

Ten years later, the Special Dungeon "The Fall from the Abyss" would open. The abyss beyond the border would descend and invade reality.

The Morningstar Family would be the first border family to be completely wiped out.

To protect his family's gold mine, he had to become a hardworking second-generation rich kid.

"Master."

Enya watched Ansu as she said, "Lord Patriarch has returned. He hopes you can clearly explain why you defied him and ran away from home a week ago."

"Father's going to settle the score with me?" Ansu felt a headache coming on.

"No, quite the opposite. He is very pleased."

Enya gave a light cough and repeated Count Carlo's words in a cool, detached tone, vividly mimicking him.

"He said, 'That brat finally has the backbone I had back then! So young, yet already so filial—how is he anything like a Noble Scion!'"

The Old Man's idea of Noble Scions was a little skewed.

Ansu sighed helplessly, put down his book, and said, "Take me to him."

Passing through the corridor and following the small lane lined with windmill chrysanthemums, one would see a European-style manor. After entering the manor and going up to the Third Floor, they arrived at Count Carlo's sitting room.

It was a lavishly decorated sitting room.

Pale blue curtains shimmered in the afternoon sunlight, while the mahogany furniture gave off a faint fragrance after being warmed by the sun.

Count Carlo sat behind his desk in the study. His face was stern, and his gaze was as sharp as an eagle's.

"You said you want to join the Radiant Holy See?"

Count Carlo did not look pleased. He mocked Ansu, "You?"

Count Carlo had originally been quite happy. He had thought his son had finally shown some promise, daring to run away from home at such a young age—what backbone! But he had not expected Ansu to take that backbone too far and rebel to the point of wanting to join the Holy See.

Carlo could understand and support running away from home. But running away to become a monk made him furious.

I told you to leave home, not become a monk!

"Do you understand the Radiant Holy See's doctrines?"

Count Carlo calmed his anger slightly and said to Ansu, "Once you become a saint, everything in the secular world will have nothing to do with you."

"I understand." Ansu nodded neither humbly nor arrogantly.

"Father, I have also resolved to Offer my life to the Holy Light, and I have already obtained a testing slot."

Count Carlo's expression immediately darkened.

It had to be that Nun who visited earlier.

What a poor choice of friends.

His perfectly fine playboy son had been led astray by those bad influences and now wanted to dedicate his entire life to that damned Holy Light!

Could Count Carlo possibly not understand his own son?

His aptitude for the light was practically zero. To put it bluntly, he was a Holy Light Idiot.

This Nun had talked him into joining the Holy See and taking some sort of entry test. If he failed, he would retake it again and again, wasting the best years of his youth on practice questions. Wasn't that just ruining his life?

The children next door in the Viceroy's Territory were already flirting with respectable women, while his own son spent every day doing problems. When was Count Carlo supposed to hold a grandson?

"Ansu, we all understand your situation."

He decided to have a proper, earnest talk with his son.

"Your talent does not lie in holy light. Our family does not lack mages. I know you harbor some resentment, but it is not that your father refuses to support your dream. We simply have to face reality."

"Managing a gold mine is not such a terrible thing, you know."

Carlo said in a conciliatory tone.

"If you truly do not want to, you can manage a Silver Mine instead."

"Do you know how difficult the Radiant Holy See's entry test is?"

Seeing that Ansu was still unmoved, Count Carlo glanced at Enya, who stood waiting nearby. "Enya, you tell him. Do you think your master can pass the test? At his level?"

"No." Without the slightest hesitation, she struck straight at the heart of the matter. "Master is useless."

After a moment's thought, Enya added, "However, I can assassinate all the other candidates. Then he will pass."

Ansu studied Miss Maid's expression. There was not a ripple in those amber eyes; they were as calm as an autumn lake. Her claim that she would kill all the other candidates did not seem to be a joke.

How were you even more extreme than me?

Ansu's head began to ache again.

It seemed everyone in this family looked down on him.

They all thought Ansu could not make it through.

Indeed, given the original owner's talent, passing the Holy See's entry test was pure fantasy.

The Holy See's initiation ceremony was scored across two stages.

The first was a written examination.

The original owner had been a good-for-nothing since childhood, so there was no way he could pass the academic portion.

The second was an aptitude test.

In other words, a test of magical aptitude.

With the original owner's Innate Rich Second Generation Saint Body, he would not even earn a passing score in this round.

And after those two preliminary tests came the final test.

Combat.

Ansu had always been perceptive. He knew how to read people and understood that Carlo was stopping him because he feared Ansu would waste his youth on something meaningless.

He was afraid that studying would rob him of his prime years as a rich second-generation heir.

Once he understood the reason, it was easy to prescribe the right remedy.

"Father."

Ansu met the count's gaze and said seriously, "I will only take it once. If I fail, I will not retake it. I will give up on my dream and obediently come home to inherit the gold mine!"